Ruby and the Blacksmith
by Tao McCawley
Summary: Ruby Rose is not a social girl, despite being the leader of Team RWBY, she is constantly alone with no one to talk to. and then, she met a blacksmith...
1. Chapter 1

Ruby was feeling lonely. It had been a few weeks since herself, Blake, Sun, and Penny had confronted Roman Torchwick at the docks.

Actually, to be accurate, all Ruby did was sit in the sidelines while her friends did the fighting. She was nursing an injury that Torchwick gave her with that Roman Candlestick cane of his. After the fight, Blake became a bit more social. She made up with Weiss and put the whole "White Fang" thing behind them. Blake also got friendly with Sun, a monkey faunus, and by friendly, they started dating. Sometimes Blake would go out with Sun and not come back until late at night, and even so, when night came along, she came in through the room window (because all other entrances were locked) giggling and sometimes purring out of delight.

And then there was Penny, who disappeared after the whole thing. Ruby wondered what had happened to her, she disappeared right after Blake and Weiss had made up. The sad thing was that, although she was awkward, she really treated Ruby as a friend.

Today, Ruby felt especially lonely because on this particular saturday, Blake and Sun were out doing who-knows what. Weiss was in town stocking up on dust. Yang was spending time with her other friends. Jaune was practicing with Pyrrha on the roof, and Ren and Nora were making pancakes, something they always did when they were together. If Ruby were to try to join in with any of them, it would just be awkward.

Ruby wanted what all of them (with the exception of Weiss) had. A really good friend. She had her scythe, which she called her sweetheart. If weapons were people, she would easily be very social among them.

Speaking of weapons, Ruby was getting hers from her locker. She inputted her locker code and found that her crescent Rose was in good condition. She hugged her folded up scythe beloved; her only friend and companion, and cried.

Ruby was a kid, she just wanted to be loved. To see that everyone else around her wasn't lonely, just really hurt her. She wanted to feel, to love, to be loved in return. Her tears dripped silently on her scythe.

Ruby figured the best way to get her mind off of things was to go practice with her scythe for a while, maybe chop up a few trees in anger.

She took her scythe and expanded it to it's full form. A red crescent blade took form, as the tips folded away from the from the shaft of the scythe, which was about a foot taller than Ruby. She sighed as she took her craft and went to the exterior forest. She took out her scroll and logged that she was going into the forest. While awaiting permission and confirmation, she just counted the bullets in her magazine over and over and over again. Twenty-four bullets. She had a spare magazine just in case, but she was just lying down, looking up, letting the sun shine on everything but a sad little rose that was ready to wilt.


	2. Ruby and the Blacksmith: Chapter 2

Ruby eyed the first tree, it was alone, like she was. It was distant from all the others. She looked at her scythe and saw that some of the tears she was crying earlier, still adhered to the blade of the scythe. She despised these tears, as they teased her for being alone. In frustration, she swung her scythe, and in one fell swoop: chopped down the tree just to remove the tears. She went into a frenzy, and chopped down another tree, and another, until she had chopped down nine trees. Ruby was breathing hard, not for being tired, but out of sheer anger. Chopping trees solved nothing, it didn't even take her mind off of it. In a rage she chopped down another tree. Her scythe cut through it like butter. She could not effectively take out her anger on a stationary target that would not fight back. She may as well have been slicing air.

That's when she received a blow on her back by like a battering ram. Ruby fell forward and lost her scythe. Head spinning, she looked up to see a large shadowy creature roaring at her. It had bone armor on its face, joints and back. An Ursa Major, no doubt lured by the noise of trees falling.

Ruby was still pretty angry and discombobulated from the blow. At this point it was one reckless creature versus another. The Ursa charged Ruby and lunged for her, but Ruby somersaulted out of the way toward her scythe. She picked up her scythe and quickly and shot a bullet underneath her. She sprung up toward a tree branch wide enough to stand on and eyed her opponent. The Ursa lunged at the tree trunk, trying to make it fall down. The tree shook and started to lean downward, but Ruby simply jumped to another tree. The branch was considerably lower and it was the perfect opportunity to surprise the Ursa from behind. She shot out of the branch and aimed her scythe for a chink in the armor of the Ursa's back.

But the Ursa turned to meet Ruby, and instead of hitting a chink in the armor, the Ursa's armor took the full force of the scythe. The force of the impact ran throughout the scythe, and the blade of Ruby's sweetheart took all the punishment. The blade shattered into a dozen pieces, the hinges where the blade folded out could not take the stress of the blow and they came undone, the blunt edge got separated from the rest of the blade and the contraption fell out of Ruby's hands yet again. Her weapon had lost its blade. Ruby fell as well, right next to the only usable part of her weapon: The gun.

At this point, Ruby was seeing Red. She grabbed her gun and aimed it at the Ursa. The Ursa charged Ruby. She screamed as she fired three shots into the Ursa's head. Even with bone armor on its face, there was not much the Ursa or anything could do against a high-powered sniper rifle to the face. The Ursa's red mess of a face fell forward, taking the rest of it's body with it. Ruby still fired at the Ursa though. Her anger only subsiding when she ran out of bullets.

Ruby fell to her knees, her adrenaline rush subsided leaving her exhausted. She looked around at the sight. In front of her a dead Ursa, to her side was her empty rifle. Behind the Ursa, was the blade of the scythe, broken and scattered all over the forest floor, to her right were several sniper shells from her rage. She went over to her gun, and picked it up. She cradled in her arms as a mother would a child, and put her cheek to it.

"My sweetheart." she whispered, as she cried over her beloved.


	3. Chapter 3

When Yang came back to their room. She found two things: pieces of her sister's scythe were scattered all over the floor; and she saw her sister in the bathroom wearing a bra and sweatpants looking at her back in the mirror observing how bad her wounds were.

"What happened!" shrieked Yang from the bedroom.

"I was in the woods, and I got attacked by an Ursa."

"Are you all right?"

"I guess."

"Your scythe, oh my gosh Ruby…"

"The gun still works, but the blade isn't fixable." said Ruby. She wasn't crying now, she had spent her tears in the forest. At this point, she was so depressed that she didn't really seem to care anymore.

"How'd the scythe break?"

"Direct hit to Ursa armor."

"What happened to the Ursa?"

"Lots and lots of bullets."

"And your back?" said Yang as she pointed to Ruby's almost completely purple back

"It surprised me from behind."

"Have you been to the infirmary?"

"No, and I don't need to see anybody, all I have is a really big bruise on my back and a sigh broken scythe."

"Im taking you to the infirmary."

"Yang…"

"Ruby…"

"Fine…" said Ruby She was not going to get anywhere with Yang like this. Despite not being around Ruby that much, Yang did genuinely care about her like an older sister should. That is to say… like a mother.

While Ruby quickly put on a shirt, Yang was gathering all the pieces of Crescent Rose.

"What are you doing?" asked Ruby.

'When we get to the infirmary, I want to see what up with your scythe myself. I know you care about this scythe more than anything and you're not the only one who knows a thing about building weapons." said Yang, alluding to the fact that they hailed from Signal Academy, where all students forged their own weapons.

Ruby smiled. "Thanks sis."

When all that was done, they made their way to the infirmary.

The infirmary was nothing special. If anything it was a miniature hospital. The infirmary was a large room strategically placed next to the auditorium in case anyone got hurt or injured while there was a battle. Right to the left of the doors was a front desk. Beyond that was a dozen hospital beds with curtains that encompassed them if a patient was changing. Beyond that, cabinets and cupboards of various medical supplied such as bandages, rubbing alcohol and other battle as well as a small supply of dust used sometimes

Ruby went over to the front desk and rang the service bell. A blue-haired woman with square glasses and a plain white uniform looked up from paperwork. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Um…" Ruby didn't know how the infirmary worked, she figured it was best to say…

"So… I fought an Ursa today."

"Are you injured?"

"I got a bad back." said Ruby, turning her back to the lady and pulling her shirt up far enough so that she could see the rather large boo-boo.

"Ruby, don't be sarcastic." said Yang as she nudged her. The nurse didn't seem to mind.

"I see, do you have a concussion?"

"Um… I can't say for sure…"

"Follow me." she said as she walked around the counter to the nearest bed. Ruby sat up on it and took off her shirt. Yang closed the curtains.

"You were attacked by an Ursa Major?" she said while examining Ruby's back.

"Looked like one."

"That would explain that." said the nurse alluding to the broken parts in Yang's hands.

"Look at the light." said the Nurse shining a light at Ruby's eyes. Ruby closed her eyes in pain.

"You have a slight concussion and multiple contusions on your back." She proclaimed. "I have to tell Professor Ozpin of this."

"Why?" asked Ruby.

"If a student is injured or attacked by a Grimm, he has to know."

"I see. Thank you."

When all the business with the nurse was said and done, Ruby put on her shirt. Yang piled the pieces onto the bed. Together they started to put all the pieces together. When they had finished, Yang said: "I don't think you can weld it together. The metal was too stressed by the blow."

"So what do you suggest?" said Ruby.

"Replace the blade." said Yang.

"No!" shrieked Ruby.

"Ruby… you're gonna have to."

"No, I dont want to have to lose any part of it! I forged that blade myself, Im not going to replace anything!"

"Ruby? are you there?" said a gentle male voice from the other side of the curtain.

"Who is it?"

"It's Professor Ozpin, may I come in?" Yang opened up the curtain for him. He stepped in, leaning on his walking stick and sipping coffee in his other hand. "Thank you Yang." He turned to Ruby. "I heard you were attacked by an Ursa. Are you all right?"

"You should've seen the other guy." said Ruby jokingly.

"Right now I'm looking at you, and your scythe." said Ozpin as he pointed to the mess on the bed.

"I'll get it fixed." said Ruby as she gave Yang a cold stare.

"Right, I couldn't help but overhear. Have you seen the blacksmith?" asked Ozpin.

"I didn't know we had a blacksmith." said Yang.

"Well in any case, I would go see him about this."

Ruby wasn't sure how to respond to this. Only two people had ever handled her scythe in combat or otherwise: Herself, and her Uncle Crow and Ruby wanted it to stay that way.

"See… the thing is Professor…I..."

"Yes, I get a lot of students from Signal Academy who are very persnickety about who handles their weapons, I can assure you that I would not have appointed him as such if I wasn't sure that he treats weapons with the utmost respect."

"Yeah, but…"

"We'll check it out. Where is he?" said Yang butting in.

"His forge is a separate building that is located on the side facing the Forever Fall."

"I.. okay." said Ruby. Yang could drag Ruby anywhere she had to, Ruby knew this and figured she would just roll with it.

"Good. Now, Nurse Azul has recommended that you stay out of Physical training classes for a while." Ozpin set his coffee down and produced a note from his coat. "Just make sure that your instructor gets this." He handed Ruby the paper which read:_ Ruby Rose is excused from all Physical classes from Monday till Friday. Signed: Prof. Ozpin._ ""Oh, one last thing: if that Ursa is still in the woods, its fur is worth a lot, when you are well, you ought to go get it. Now, if you'll excuse me, us old farts need our sleep." He said wryly. "Good night."

When Ruby and Yang got back to their room it was nighttime. They found Weiss and Blake in the room.

Weiss started: "Hey! Where were you guys?"

"The infirmary, I was attacked by an Ursa earlier today."

"What?"

"Yang, can you tell them? I'm tired." said Ruby as she climbed onto her bed and plopped down immediately from exhaustion.


	4. Chapter 4

Ruby woke up and sat on her bed with her back still feeling like crap. Careful not to wake up the rest of her team, she trudged over to the bathroom and looked at her back: It was less purple, but otherwise, no change. After taking care of her morning routine she wrote a note saying:

I went to the blacksmith's forge - Ruby

Yang would have dragged her there anyways, but she thought it would be best if she went alone, she didn't want Yang speaking on her behalf all the time. This was one time she could stand to be alone. As quietly as possible, she gathered all the parts of her scythe and tiptoed out of her room. As she struggled to shut the door behind her while carrying her broken scythe in both arms, a voice said: "Lemme help you with that." It was Jaune, up and about in his footy pajamas. He went over to the door and shut it.

"What happened to your scythe?" he asked, pointing at the bundle in Ruby's arms.

"Well, I was in the walking in the woods minding my own business..."

"Really?" he said smiling and crossing his arms.

"I was!" she said, smiling in return. "I was walking in the woods and I got attacked by an Ursa Major."

"Wow, and you're not injured?"

"You should've seen the other guy." Jaune laughed at that. "So what are you doing up?" asked Ruby.

"Nora snores, I was sleeping out in the hallway." Jaune pointed to the nearest bench which had a pillow and a blanket on it.

"And you are the only one who is bothered by it?" said Ruby smirking.

"Ren and Pyrrha can fall asleep pretty fast, before Nora can start snoring."

"Oh man, that sucks."

"Not for them. Speaking of which, why are you up this early?"

"Im going to the blacksmith's forge to get my scythe fixed."

"Oh you're off to see Ross?"

"Didn't know his name was Ross."

"Ruby! You know better than to go see someone you don't even know!" said Jaune

sarcastically."Anyways, I should go take a shower before someone else uses all the hot water, tell Ross I said hi."

"Don't take all the hot water from your teammates."

"Will do."

Ruby turned and walked down the hallway, down the stairway, out of the gates of the dorm, and walked the cobblestone pathway till she reached the fountain. Forever fall was to the east of Beacon Academy, meaning it was right behind the academy in the very back. She would have gone through the building's front door and out the back as opposed to walking around the main auditorium, but she had no choice seeing it was too early for the doors to be unlocked. So she went around it following the wall of the building until she finally saw the forge.

It was a rather large cabin with walls of metal sheeting. As Ruby got closer she could see bolts. It had a black chimney made of bricks that was bellowing smoke, meaning that Ross was in the forge. Ruby had encountered her fair share of blacksmiths and knew that they got up early, to heat up their forges and get some work done while they were at it. Ruby's hands were full with her scythe, so she had to kick the door with her feet. This was one of those doors that split into two halves, a top and a bottom. The top section opened up to reveal a kid not much older than Ruby with black curly hair and a black thick metal apron. He wore gloves of the same fashion and goggles that he placed above his eyes for the moment. He was rather tall, perhaps a foot taller than Ruby.

"Can I help you?" he asked with a rather blank expression.

"Are you Ross?" asked Ruby.

"I am, and you?"

"Ruby." From his left, he pulled out a small piece of paper which read "ORDER FORM". He wrote down 'Ruby'

"I take it you need that repaired?" he nodded over to the scythe.

"Yeah…" Ruby held her scythe a little closer. She was hesitant to put her scythe in someone else's hands.

"I get that a lot." said Ross, out of the blue.

"What?" said Ruby

"A lot of students from Signal grow attached to their weapons. You probably designed it yourself, forged it yourself, and wielded it yourself. You don't want to put your craft in someone else's hands because you don't know the outcome and you are afraid that I will screw up."

Faced with the truth, Ruby could only respond with:

"Sounds about right. Not to mention, a lot of the blacksmiths i encounter are rather old, you cant be much older than… what sixteen?"

"Not bad. Guess how many months and I'll throw in a magazine of bullets." Ruby studied him.

"Sixteen years, four months?

"Nope, seven, but I'll throw in the magazine anyways."

Reluctantly, Ruby whispered: "Deal."

"I heard that." said Ross, jokingly.

"I'm suing you if you screw up."

"I'm going to take that seriously." His face changed and became more stern and serious. "Now is there anything in particular you would like?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you don't want the blade replaced, just put back together."

"Yeah…"

"I can do that."

Ruby paused, and hesitated to just take Ross's word for it. Still... he couldn't be all that bad if Ozpin hired him.

Ruby shoved her craft into Ross's hands. "I'll be back at one o' clock, and if she isn't in _pristine_ condition, I'm gonna…!" Ruby paused, looking in her head for a good threat. Finally she yelled: "I'm gonna break your legs!"

And with that Ruby stormed back to her dorm.


	5. Chapter 5

When Ruby got back to her dorm, she found her entire team was going through their morning routines. Yang was in the shower, Weiss was brushing her hair, and Blake was brushing her teeth (in the bedroom, not in the bathroom.)

"Hey team." said Ruby as she walked in.

"Hey." said Blake with a mouth full of toothpaste.

"So how'd your meeting with the Blacksmith go?" asked Weiss. Ruby cringed when she asked this seeing as the last thing she said to him was that she would cripple him for life. She decided to gently change the topic.

"It… went all right. So who wants to make some money?" Blake turned her cat ears in curiousity, Weiss paused for a second before resuming to brush her hair.

"How so?" said Blake.

"That Ursa I killed in the woods the other day might still be there. It was a pretty big Ursa, so I figure it'll take more than one person to move it, I want to bring it here, sell its fur and split the money four ways. Weiss, if you want to, you'll be in charge of finding a buyer."

"Why me?" asked the heiress.

"I would say yes to the first deal I hear. Yang would bully the buyer into paying more, and Blake…"

"...doesn't want to, not to mention people may not want to buy goods from a faunus." said Blake wiggling her cat ears.

"Yeah… that." Ruby turned to Weiss. "So, you up for it?"

"Yeah, you've picked the right person for this." said Weiss, her ego getting a boost from Ruby trusting her with this.

"All right then, we'll go after breakfast if you guys have nothing else to do."

"Im in." said Blake.

"Yeah, I'll go too. I just hope the carcass hasn't rotted." said Weiss. "It'll be harder to sell."

"Hey wassup?" said Yang, coming out of the shower wearing a towel. "Did the smith say he could fix the scythe?"

"Yeah… he did." Ruby cringed with those words. Two thoughts went through her mind as Yang mentioned the Blacksmith. She wondered what he thought about the whole 'break your legs' thing she made.

And she wondered if she was going to break them.

Ruby could see it now. She would go to Ross and demand her scythe. He would refuse to let her in and tell her to wait. Then she would persist and eventually force her way inside. She would look around and find on the workbench, her beloved strewn about, in even worse condition. Ross didn't know what he was doing, he had tried to weld it together but alas, if it tried to cut through anything, it would be ruined. She would then look at the pretender, walk right up to his scrawny excuse for a person, grab him by the curls of his hair and smash his head against the wall. Dragging Ross across the floor, she would fetch his smithing hammer. Then crouch just above his kneecaps, she would look at Ross's face as he realizes how powerless he against raw rage. His face filled with terror, she would raise the hammer making sure he saw what she was about to do, and when he pleads for forgiveness and mercy, she would bring it down on his…

"Hey!" said Yang as she slapped Ruby on the back. "Relax! Ozpin's the one who appointed him, how bad could he be?" Ruby got knocked back to her senses. Of course, even if Ross was a fool, Ozpin certainly wasn't. Ruby would just have to wait and see… just how big of a hammer Ross has in his forge.

"Good point." she said as she had more reassurance that things would turn out alright. "Anyways while you were in the shower…"

"I heard, I'm in, I'm hungry. Let's go eat, I'm starving."

"You wanna get dressed first?" said Blake.

"Course I do, I'm not that hungry!"

* * *

At the breakfast table, team RWBY sat with team JNPR as they always did. Jaune was sleeping, his unconscious head held high in one hand while his other hand had his fork and a plate of untouched bacon and eggs.

"You think we should wake him?" said Blake, sipping her milk.

Nora refilled her coffee mug. "All he needs is some coffee!" she said as she slid her mug over to Jaune. It landed right below his face so that the aroma of the steaming hot coffee reached his nose. Jaune's face twitched, but not much else happened.

"Pyrrha, just nudge him, he won't get mad." said Ren.

"Remember the initiation ceremony? I punched his shoulder out of sport and he fell head over heels!"

"Out of sport?"

"It was the equivalent of a pat on the back! For being named the leader!"

"Uhh... guys" said Ruby, who was sitting across the table from Jaune.

"What is it?" said Pyrrha.

"His head is slipping." As if the words were an incantation, Jaune's hand lost its grip on on its head; and like a man dropping a penny into a glass of water from a twenty story building, Jaune's nose found its way into the mug of steaming hot coffee.

"Uh Oh." said Yang,

For a second, Jaune made no movement, but once his sleeping brain managed to process the fact that his nose was submerged in piping hot coffee, he jumped up, and grabbed at his nose as if there was something he could do about the burning liquid that was in his respiratory system. The pain was quick to subside and as soon as the burning sensation in his nose left him he sat back down, coughing.

Ruby was the first to speak: "I've heard of the phrase 'wake up and smell the coffee', but this is ridiculous!" and she smirked. Jaune, who was a little mad, started to crack a smile and chuckled.

"Thanks Ruby, I needed that." he said cheerily as his face dripped with coffee.

"Silly Jaune!" said Nora giggling. "You drink coffee from your mouth! Not through your nose!"

"Yeah." said Pyrrha, who had grabbed a napkin and wiped the coffee off of Jaune, who didn't even resist. "Silly Jaune." she said, staring into Jaune's sea blue eyes with her emerald ones and they just stayed like that for a second, hypnotized in each others eyes.

Ruby did her best not to stare, for one thing it wasn't polite, another being it just made her feel more aware her own loneliness.

"So Ruby, I hear you were attacked by an Ursa Major?" said Ren.

"Yeah, I was, why do you ask?"

"I heard you broke your scythe in the process."

"I did, it wasn't pretty." she said, worrying about her scythe in the hands of a total stranger.

"How'd it happen?" he asked. Ruby put on a brave face and said:

"Well, as you may or may not know, I like to take enthusiastic walks through the woods."

"And kill giant rampaging monsters?"

"...VERY enthusiastic walks." The whole table burst into laughter, and Jaune and Pyrrha broke from their trance, confused about the laughter that converged around them. Ruby continued the story.

"When I tried to aim for a chink in his armor, the ursa turned and I hit his armor. The blade broke apart, but the gun still worked, and when he charged at me, I fired shot after shot into his head."

"We're going to get its carcass today and sell the fur." said Yang

"You better hurry then, before the carcass spoils."

"Well, I'm finished eating." said Weiss who suddenly picked up her tray, stood up, and swiftly left the cafeteria.

"What's with her?" asked Pyrrha.

"Weiss is in charge of finding a buyer for the Ursa pelt, It's harder to sell it if it's rotted, so I'm assuming she wants to get this taken care of as soon as possible." said Blake.

"If that's the case, she has a point." said Ruby, who wanted to get away from everything that reminded her of being alone. "I'm ready when you guys are."


	6. Chapter 6

About thirty minutes later, team RWBY was assembled outside the forest with their weapons, save for Ruby who instead had a backpack filled with four long ropes, a tarp, and some water in case they got thirsty.

As they walked, no one was really in the mood to talk until Yang said: "Jaune and Pyrrha should just admit that they like each other. I mean they're perfect for each other."

"Oh please, Pyrrha is a seasoned warrior, Jaune is incompetent as a fighter!" said Weiss.

"I dont think you're giving Jaune enough credit, Weiss, I mean you're the one who saw him behead an Ursa Major in the Forever Fall." said Blake.

"Pyrrha was the one who made sure that Jaune's shield would take the Ursa's hit and that why he could even behead it in the first place!"

"That's why they're perfect! for each other! They support each other, not to mention Jaune treats her right." said Yang.

"Do you like Jaune?" asked Ruby.

"No! I mean, My first impression of Jaune was him when he puked on my shoes on the airship coming into Beacon, he hasn't puked on my shoes since, but still… holy crap." She was staring at the fallen trees that just a few meters in front of them. The logs themselves were about three feet tall. "How'd this happen?"

"That would have been me." said Ruby. "I...err… tried to pen off the Ursa to prevent him from getting close to the school by chopping trees and turning them into barricades." Ruby didn't like lying to her teammates, but she didn't want to tell them that she felt lonely so she chopped down some trees out of anger. What would they think?

"Good thinking, but we'll have to drag the Ursa around all these logs." said Blake.

"Well the sooner we find the Ursa, the better." said Weiss. "Where is it Ruby?" Ruby promptly climbed up the nearest log and looked around.

"Right there." And Ruby pointed to an area that was at the group's eleven o' clock. All the team climbed the log to join Ruby and saw the sight.

A gargantuan black mass of fur and bone stood about five meters away from them. The Ursa had not yet rotted, it had only been a day and it had been undisturbed for the most part. It's bone armor had gotten a little yellow with with decay, but the fur was still intact.

"You never said it was this big." said Weiss.

"That's what she said." said Yang, smirking.

"Yang!" said Ruby, who struggled to hold back a laugh. Even Blake couldn't help but smile at the joke.

"Let's get this over with." said Weiss, who was trying her best to ignore the joke.

As they approached the Ursa, Ruby pulled out the tarp from her backpack. As a team, they managed to shove the carcass onto the tarp. It wasn't easy, they couldn't roll the body over to the tarp because the bone spike protruding out of the back, so Weiss had use her glyphs to lift one end of the Ursa while the rest of the team put the tarp under it. Weiss would have used her glyphs to bring the Ursa back the whole way back, but stamina wasn't Weiss's strong suit. At most, she could hold a glyph in place for, at most, ten seconds at a time. Once they got they got the Ursa on the tarp, they tied the four ropes to four eyelets that were on the same side of the tarp. After a five minute water break, they each grabbed a rope, slung it over their shoulders and heaved. It wasn't terribly hard to pull, the fact that they were splitting the load helped a lot, as well as the tarp's reduced friction. They may as well have been hiking.

"So what's the blacksmith like?" asked Weiss as she pulled her rope.

"Well, he's actually pretty young."

"Like in his twenties?" asked Yang.

"No, he's a year older than me."

"Seriously?" asked Weiss. "How many underage people are at this school?"

"Well, as I recall, I think two years ago, the head blacksmith at Beacon retired so they needed someone to fill the spot." said Blake. "I didn't realize that Ozpin would hire someone so young."

"I think labor laws prevent children from working unless they are receiving a formal education. Maybe he's a student as well." said Ruby.

"Is he cute?" asked Yang.

"Oh come on!" said Ruby. "The first thing you ask if I meet a boy is if he's cute!"

"Well? Is he? Tell me what he looks like!"

"Um… lemme think. He's about a foot taller than me, he's got black curly hair. He's buff, but all blacksmiths are strong, its a side effect of their work. His face, it;s a bit dirty, but I caught him while he was working, of course his face would be dirty."

"Wait a minute, you caught him working in the morning, on a Sunday, before anyone else was awake?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, it's just, well, he sounds like the guy my father would hire. From a business standpoint, Ozpin chose well."

"Well, he did strike me as a hard worker…"

"Is he _handsome_?" teased Yang. Ruby knew she would ask so she gave Yang's teasing question with a teasing answer.

"Meh, he's alright. Oh look! We're here!" Before them laid Beacon academy in all it's glory. They stopped pulling the load and felt a slight relief.

"Wait… now what?" said Weiss. "We've got the Ursa here, what do we do now?"

"I asked for a favor from Professor Port." said Ruby. "He knows how to skin an Ursa. He should be meeting us here in a couple of minutes." she said, looking at her watch. It was almost ten-thirty in the morning.

"Hello there children!" Professor Port made himself visible from the courtyard just to the left of the group. He approached the group with a duffel bag.

"Hey Professor." said Blake. "Here's the ursa Ruby mentioned to you."

Port's eyes widened. "You never mentioned the beast was this big!" he said.

Yang started to whisper: "That's what she…"

"NO!" said Ruby, loudly under her breath.

"Very well then Ms. Rose, would you like the head of the beast so you can mount it on your wall?" he said,

"Actually… yeah but I'd rather you made it so I could wear it as a mask."

"Very well, and our deal remains the same?"

"Yes."

"Very well then. It's best if I skin it outside so as not to make a mess indoors. I'll need at least two assistants to help skin it."

"I don't mind." said Weiss.

"I have an errand I need to run.. so…yeah." said Yang. Ruby knew what Yang was really thinking. She had gotten uncomfortable with Port's flirting, whether he was just messing around or not, it was too creepy for Yang to deal with. Port hadn't done anything criminal or even remotely harassing, he just made Yang feel uncomfortable.

"I'm free for the next couple of hours anyways." said Blake.

"Then that's settled." Said Ruby, she turned to Professor Port and said: "Once the pelt's been sold you'll get the ten percent we agreed on."

"Wait what?" said Weiss with a look of confusion.

"I offered Professor Port ten percent from my cut of the money to skin the Ursa. Everyone else gets their twenty-five percent, Professor Port gets ten percent, I get fifteen percent." she said.

"Are you sure Ruby?" asked Yang.

"Yeah, besides, I've already made the deal. Weiss, if you are going to ask why I didnt ask you…"

"No, it was a good move, You got the fur skinned by a professional. Besides, it's none of my business how you spend your cut of the money." said Weiss, a bit relieved. Blake rolled her eyes as if to say: '_Okay, whatever'_.

"All right then. I should go to the blacksmith's place then, see how the repairs are going." said Ruby who turned and left in the direction of the forge.

"I'll go with you." said Yang, who went in the direction of her sister.

"You just want to see if he's cute!"

" Actually, I want him to check out my gauntlets."


	7. Chapter 7

_BOM - BOM - BOM_

Yang pounded her fist on the door of Ross's forge.

"You sure he's here?" asked Yang.

"There's smoke coming out of the chimney. If he'd left, any good blacksmith would have put out the forge."

"Well mayb-" The top half of the door opened up. Ross showed himself wearing his goggles and face all black with soot.

"Ruby, right? I thought you'd be back at one?"

"Well, my sister here wanted to 'meet' you, and I wanted to apologize."

Yang was confused."Wait, apologize for what?"

"I'm sorry I threatened to break your legs if I didn't get Crescent Rose back all right." Yang did the natural thing and put her palm to her face in embarrassment.

Ross spoke. "If it makes you feel better, I also care for weapons as if they're people." Ruby and Ross shared a mutual smile. "Anyways, I'm being rude." he acknowledged Yang. "I'm Ross, Ross Festus." He took off his right glove and extended it to Yang. "and your name is…"

"Yang Xiaolong."

"Nice to meet you, well, the two of you are welcome to come in if you want to check up on your scythe."

"That's nice, thanks."

She was doing her best not to barge through the door and check up on her beloved. Ross opened the bottom part of the door and let Ruby and Yang in.

The first thing Ruby noticed were the weapons. On the steel walls hung various weapons. A chainsaw that had a gun barrel on the top side, a spear that doubled as a sniper rifle, arced half-moon blades that attached to the wrists which seemed to have green dust lining the edges of the blades. Ross had an imagination, that's for sure.

The entire cabin was lined wall-to-wall with countertops and cupboards with a sink attached. At the back of the cabin was the forge, an intense industrial fireplace where inside, the fire was controlled to be whatever temperature Ross required. Nearby the forge was two workbenches with various hammers and pliers laid across one of them. On the other…

"My scythe!" Ruby went over to her craft… and then noticed there was no blade... just the gun.

"Where…"

"The blade is being heat-treated in the furnace to your left." said Ross. Ruby turned to see an oven built into the wall. Three rectangular slots were built into the door and they glowed orange with heat.

"The blade's in there?"

"Yeah."

"What are you doing exactly?" asked Yang.

"Well, first I melted the blade…"

"WHAT?!" Ruby yelled and grabbed the closest weapon she could find, Ross's hammer, a good sized ball-pin hammer about two feet long, and rushed at Ross with it. She swung the hammer at him. Typically, one would not swing a hammer this size sideways, but Ruby swung it like she would her scythe, and missed. Ross stepped back to dodge the blow, and Ruby ended up swinging the hammer into the nearby support wall where it lodged itself stuck. Ruby tried to pull the hammer free, but Ross put one hand on the head of the hammer that was sticking out of the wall, and his other hand on the handle where Ruby was trying to pull it. Yang came over and grabbed Ruby from behind her shoulders and put her into a full nelson. Ruby resisted, but it wasn't enough.

"What did you do Ross?" said Yang, particularly frustrated with Ross.

Ross looked Ruby in her angry silver eyes and calmly said: "I melted it, and then I molded it."

Ruby became confused. "Wait...what?"

"I reverse engineered the designs for the blade, made molds for the individual blade components, and then I melted down your blade only to remake it like it was before. In other words, every bit of metal that you gave me, is still part of the blade, nothing was replaced, just remade."

Ruby stopped resisting Yang's grip, and she let her go. "I don't know what to say." said Ruby, almost sobbing. "I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to… I just...please don't be mad."

"It's all right, you're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to make me mad." said Ross jokingly. Having been relieved from her guilt, Ruby promptly walked up to Ross and hugged him, sobbing. "Shh...shh...it's ok, it's ok." said Ross, hugging her back and trying to calm her down. " You're getting your skirt all dirty with soot." Ruby didn't care, she hugged Ruby and pressed her face against Ross's chest, getting the entire right side of her face all black with ash.

"Let it out...Let it out…" said Ross as he waved Yang over to the two of them. During this ordeal, Yang had just been standing there letting Ruby and Ross sort things out. Aside from restraining Ruby when she was out of control, the whole situation seemed too personal for her to get involved.

Yang pulled Ruby away from Ross. It wasn't hard, nor did Ruby resist, but she was still sobbing. She was so concerned and reckless about her scythe, so mad at herself for going ballistic against the guy who was trying to help her, and he simply forgave her? Her tears were those of joy, washing away the guilt and anger she had amassed over her painful, lonely life. She fell to her knees, and looked the ground as she tried to hide her tears from Ross.

Ross went over to the sink and took off his gloves, then he grabbed some paper towels from a countertop and walked over to where Ruby was kneeling. Ross crouched down to her level and said: "Here, let me." Ruby raised her face up to meet Ross, and she stared into his dark yet kind black eyes as he wiped her face. Ruby's sobbing started to stop, slowly at first...and then all at once. She felt the paper towel as it moved across her face, scraping away all the soot that was wet with her tears, until her face was as white and rosy cheeked as they day she was born.

When Ross was done, they both stood up, Ross helped Ruby onto her own two feet. Ruby was looking straight into Ross's eyes and he reacted like Ruby had hoped he would: He blushed.

Trying to keep a straight face, he said: "Tell you what." said Ross. "When the blade has finished tempering, I'll deliver it to your dorm. How does that sound?"

"I'd like that a lot." she said with a smile.

"Good." said Ross, returning the smile.

Yang butted in: "Well, you must be busy…"

"Right, right, I'll err- see you later then."

Ruby started to walk toward the door, and then she stopped.

"Is something the matter?" Ruby ran over to Ross and hugged him, wrapping her arms around him, and nuzzled the side of her face into Ross's chest, this time she took notice of how warm and comfortable Ross's chest was, like a fireplace even though the only thing separating Ross and Ruby was a black and dirty leather apron. Ross returned the hug, putting his right hand on the back of Ruby's head and his left hand on her back.

They stayed like that for some time until Ruby finally let him go, smiling as she left him.

* * *

Authors Note: Hello all you lovely people.

This was easily my most emotional chapter, as Ruby starts to fall for Ross.

For those of you who want a physical description of Ross, I'll just sum up what I've got so far since I never really tell all his details at once.

Age: 16, a year younger than Weiss, Blake, or any other freshman save for Ruby.

Height: Nothing specific, but he is a foot taller than Ruby

Hair: Black and curly.

Build: rather muscular, not like that of a body builder, but being a blacksmith demands a lot of physical strength.

Eyes: Jet black to match his hair.

Skin: Caucasian, covered in soot most of the time, but that because we havent seen him when he isn't working in his forge.

Clothing: Jeans, leather apron that covers him from his shoulders to his knees to protect against the dangers of being a blacksmith, a black shirt goes underneath that and finally, Round goggles that he slides up to his forehead when he isn't working.


	8. Chapter 8

"Ruby, I felt awkward being there." said Yang as they walked toward their dorm.

"How do you think I felt?"

"I just stood there as a perfect stranger wiped my sister's tears AND you hugged him! TWICE!"

"Does that answer your question?"

"What question?"

"Whether or not he's cute."

"Well...he's alright."

"I know." said Ruby as she giggled. She could still feel Ross's heat on her body.

"You like him!" said Yang, who had caught Ruby staring off into space.

"Yang!"

"Don't be embarrassed! Ross doesn't strike me as a bad guy!"

"You're jumping to conclusions!"

"Am I right?" said Yang. Ruby just stayed silent and looked away."Come on Ruby, I'm your sister!"

"Look…" said Ruby. "I don't know because well, I don't know the first thing about the guy. I know he's cute and I know he's a really good blacksmith so basically I know as much as you do and besides I'm not sure if this will lead to a relationship and if it does I don't know the first thing about being in a relationship and I don't wanna…"

"Hey" said Yang. "Breathe." Ruby took a deep breath and calmed down.

"Sorry." said Ruby.

"No, I'm sorry for forcing you to answer a question you didn't know the answer to." said Yang.

"It's fine Yang." There was some silence until Ruby spoke again and said: "I told you he was alright."

* * *

When they got back to the dorm, Ruby just lied down. Her back still hurt from the Ursa and she wasn't exactly at one hundred percent. That and the days events in general had just made Ruby rather tired. Yang was going to head down to Vale to catch up with some friends. So Ruby was going to be alone in the dorm for a while.

Except...she didn't feel alone.

She still felt some of Ross's body heat, as if they were still hugging. This led to two weird thoughts passing through Ruby's mind.

1) The thought of Ross hugging Ruby while they were in bed.

2) The thought of whether or not Ross felt Ruby's in the same way.

The first thought she immediately forced out of her mind, it was too weird to think about.

The second thought on the other hand… Ruby put her hand to her cheek, the same one she pressed against Ross's chest as she hugged him. It wasn't that warm. Her mind went blank for a couple of moments and then her mind returned to Ross. How he blushed when Ruby stared at his eyes. She wondered what Ross thought about her.

The door opened and Weiss and Blake came into the room. Ruby looked up to see blood-red stains on their clothes, Weiss's clean white combat skirt had been soaked in blood all over her chest and sleeves. Blake was similarly stained with some red blotches on her face. Ruby jumped up from her bed and approached them: "Oh my god, are you bleeding?" She quickly jumped off of her bed and rushed to her friend's aid.

"We're not dying Ruby." said Blake, her words stopping Ruby in her tracks. "Apparently, a lot of the Ursa's blood gathered up into it's throat and when Professor Port slit it so it could bleed out, it popped like a water balloon."

"Needless to say, it could have gone better." said Weisss.

"Oh...um…" Ruby struggled to find words for the whole thing. "...so uh, ...the shower's free."

"Dibs!" said Weiss as she ran over to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

"Well, I need to change." said Blake as she grabbed her bathrobe and went behind the changing screen in their room.

Ruby just went back up to her bed and let out a sigh. Thoughts of Ross immediately came back to her mind as she heard the shower run in the bathroom. What did Ross think of her? Well, what impression did she give him? She swung a hammer at him, then hugged him, did some crying, got better, and hugged him again. '_He must think I have mood swings…' _she thought, and she put both her hands to her face in regret.

"You alright?" said Blake, coming out from behind the changing screen with her bathrobe.

"I don't know." said Ruby

"Then something isn't all right, what's going on?" said Blake. She was the most down-to-earth, honest person Ruby knew, if she had anything to say about her boy troubles, it was probably worth listening to.

"Well, while you were skinning the Ursa, I sort of screwed things up with the blacksmith." She then proceeded to tell Blake about the events that happened at the forge as well as her fears of starting a relationship with Ross.

"I'm not surprised." said Blake as she sat down on her bed and tied on her bow.

"What?"

"Ruby, you treat your scythe like it was your daughter. It doesn't surprise me that you almost maimed someone you thought destroyed it."

"Is it that obvious?" asked Ruby.

Blake nodded. "What I have to say about him liking you or not, I honestly can't tell you what he thinks, I've never met the guy. On your end, it seems like you've never been in a relationship with a guy. Am I right?" It was Ruby's turn to nod.

"Well, I know the feeling." said Blake. "I never had a boyfriend before I met Sun, when we started dating, it was because we both had something in common: We both didn't like where the White Fang was headed and leading all it's members… people I knew… into short lives of fear and violence." Blake stared down at the floor and took a deep breath. "What do you have in common with Ross?"

"We both treat weapons like people, he said it himself. We're both really fond of the weapons we've made, so I guess just that we both really like weapons."

"Well then, why don't you try doing weapon things together and see where that goes?"

"Weapon things like what?" asked Ruby.

Blake shrugged: "Something you both would enjoy, I'd imagine. Maybe building a weapon together? Going to a weapon expo? That's ultimately you and Ross's decision. Ruby thought of the weapon things (Blake's words, not Ruby's) that she and Ross could do together. Her mind was honestly blank at the moment, nothing other than the examples Blake had given seemed to cross her mind.

"All right." said Ruby. "Thanks for the advice Blake, I-." BOM BOM BOM Someone was pounding on the dorm door.

"I'll get it." said Blake. She got up, adjusted her bathrobe, and opened the door enough so that whoever was on the other side could see her head. "Hi, can I help you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm looking for Ruby Rose. Is this her dorm?"

"Ross?" called Ruby from her bed. Blake opened the door all the way, and Ruby could see Ross, he had apparently cleaned up before coming here; His pale white face was free of any soot or grime. He wore a jet black windbreaker over a light gray t-shirt, with dark green cargo pants. His smithing goggles were slided up onto his forehead. What Ruby really noticed were two things. The large plastic heavy duty briefcase he was carrying, and his weapons.

On each of his arms, he had what Ruby assumed were his weapons: devices braced onto his arms not unlike how Yang's gauntlets were braced to her mechanisms had blades pointed inward toward his elbow. Ruby figured that they spun outward around his wrists into dual swords that moved parallel with Ross's forearms.

"I just finished the final assembly on your scythe." He lifted the briefcase up to his chest. "Where can I put this?"

"Um...just put it on Weiss's bed." said Ruby, pointing at the bed below hers. Ross plopped the suitcase down and undid the latches on the front. He opened the suitcase, and there she was.

Crescent Rose was folded up into it's compact form cushioned by foam from inside the briefcase, Ruby trembled as she picked it up. It had been far too long since she had held it in her arms. _Are you okay?_ thought Ruby. She extended her craft into it's gun form. The familiar whirrs and clicks made her eyes widen with joy and her breath quicken with anticipation if what would happen if she brought Crescent Rose into her final form. She spun the rifle around, and the blade folded out from the barrel of the gun almost with...surprise… as if the blade was saying: "_You weren't expecting to see me again, were ya?"_Ruby pressed the handle against her cheek, it was so cold, Ruby hadn't been able to keep her beloved warm for quite some time.

"Ross, thank you so much…"

"Don't thank me yet, don't you think we should test it?" said Ross.

"Why would we need to test it?" said Ruby. "Didn't you fix it?"

"I want to make sure it works when you use it, besides…" he shifted his view away from Ruby and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "I'd...eh...like to get to know you better." There was an awkward silence that lasted a few seconds before Ross said: "Why are you staring at me?"

Ruby caught herself staring deeply into Ross's eyes. "Nothing! I just...agree!" she said, relieved to know that Ross was practically asking her out on a date.

"You agree?" said Ross.

"A lot!" said Ruby as she nodded as hard as she could without breaking her neck.

"E-hem." Blake cleared her throat, reminding Ruby and Ross that she was still there and a witness to the awkwardness going on between them. "Sorry Ross, but… we've got a teammate in the shower that could appear any moment now, and this is an all-girls team."

"I don't hear a shower running?" said Ross, a little confused.

"It stopped while Ruby was agreeing with you."

"Oh." said Ross, a little alarmed. He turned to Ruby. "Maybe you could meet me at the forge at...let's say four?"

"Okay." she said.

"Hey could someone get me a towel?" said Weiss from inside the batroom. She opened the door partially, allowing her face to be seen. "I forgot to get one when I...AHHH!" Weiss closed the door. "RUBY! WHY IS THERE A GUY IN THE DORM!" she shrieked.

"It's the blacksmith! He brought my scythe back!"

"GET HIM OUT!"

"That's my cue...see you later Ruby." He turned to Blake. "See you later…"

"Blake." she said.

"Now go!" said Ruby, grabbing the briefcase from Weiss's bed and throwing it at Ross. He caught it, but it caught him off his guard and he stumbled back and out of the dorm. Ruby ran to the door and locked it shut. She turned her back and exhaled as she let gravity make her slide down the face of the door.

"He's gone Weiss! You scared him off!" said Ruby.

* * *

Authors Note:

Hello there, sorry for the major delay in this chapter. I assure you, it was worth the wait. I'll try to be quicker with these chapters, and I know where I am going with the plot. I have this all planned out.

Thank you for reading.

-Tao McCawley


	9. Chapter 9

"You knew I was in the shower and you still let him in?" said Weiss, wearing a towel.

"Weiss, there was no way for him to see you. You only poked your head out from the door." said Blake.

"How do you know?"

"Because I saw only your head and I'm pretty sure Ruby can say the same thing."

"It's true Weiss, no one saw more of you than your head." said Ruby.

"Well… It better stay that way!" Weiss grabbed a change of clothes and headed back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Ruby's focus went back to her scythe. She kept expanding it and detracting it like they day she had finished the scythe all those years ago. It was so familiar and yet so alien at the same time. Maybe that was because she was separated from her scythe for much too long. She had only broken it the previous afternoon, meaning she had been separated from her beloved for less than twenty-four hours.

Ruby clasped her scythe on her belt, underneath her clock like she always did. If Ruby could help it, she would never make a careless mistake like she did the day she broke her scythe.

Weiss came out of the bathroom fully dressed. "Shower's free." she said to Blake, who grabbed a towel and went into the bathroom. Weiss threw her dirty change of clothes in the laundry hamper.

"So how's your scythe?" asked Weiss as she ran through her footlocker looking for something.

"It's fine, Ross did a good job."

"Who's Ro-oh the blacksmith." said Weiss as she pulled her hairbrush from the trunk. She sat down on her bed and started to brush her hair.

"Any luck with a buyer for the pelt?" asked Ruby

"Yeah, I asked Professor Port if he knew anybody who would be interested, he said he knew a few people."

"Did he give you contact info?"

"He did...wait. It's in my other clothes." She put down her brush and walked over to the laundry hamper in the corner. She fished out a piece of paper. "Here." she handed over the piece of paper.

Ruby unfolded to reveal a list containing half a dozen names with phone numbers and various other contact info. "This is good Weiss, nice job." said Ruby.

"Thanks."

"Speaking of which, where is the pelt right now?"

"Port said he would dry it out in his bathtub. Oh and the mask you wanted from the Ursa's head? He said he couldn't make it because there were too many bullet holes in it's head. He also said that you should take that as a compliment."

"I will." said Ruby, a little flattered.

"Anyways, when I get the chance, I'll call the names on the list." said Weiss, who extended her hand, beckoning Ruby to give her back the list. Ruby handed it back to Weiss, who put it in her skirt pocket. Weiss sat down on her bed and went back to brushing her hair.

"So, what was wrong with your scythe in the first place?"

"The blade shattered into a dozen pieces. Here, let me show you." Ruby brought out her scythe and expanded it to it's full form. She held it perpendicular to the ground and pointed to the blade. It basically cracked right here, and the hinges were broken so even if the blade wasn't broken, it wouldn't be able to fold."

"Hmm." said Weiss. Ruby could tell she was disinterested, but she was pretending to be interested so as not to hurt Ruby's feelings. Ruby smiled knowing that Weiss was trying to change for the better.

The conversation had apparently ended, so Ruby folded up her scythe and climbed back up to her bed, still pretty tired. She cuddled with her scythe as if it was a teddy bear.

Falling asleep never felt so good.

* * *

When Ruby woke up, it was a few hours after she had fallen asleep. Yang was back from hanging out with her friends, Blake was reading, and Weiss was…

"Hey where's Weiss?" asked Ruby.

"She went to go call those names that Professor Port gave her." said Blake, hardly looking up from her book.

"What time is it?" asked Ruby, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"It's about two o'clock." said Yang.

"Oh." said Ruby. She was still pretty tired so she went back to sleep cuddling her scythe, grabbing it by putting her fingers inside the magazine chamber.

Wait a minute, _inside the magazine chamber_? Ruby's sleepiness immediately vanished, She looked up at her scythe to find out that sure enough, there was no magazine inside the chamber. Ross must have forgotten to give her the magazine he had promised her. Ruby got out of bed and washed her face. She had an excuse to see Ross and she wasn't going to do it with very visible eye boogers.

"I'll be back soon." said Ruby

"Where are you going?" asked Yang.

"I'm headed to Ross's forge." said Ruby. "He owes me something."

* * *

Ruby knocked on Ross's door and he answered, opening the top half of the door.

"Is it four already?" he asked, looking genuinely surprised.

"No, you still owe me a magazine for my scythe." said Ruby.

Ross was silent for a moment before he said: "Oh! The magazine I owe you for guessing my age incorrectly." Ruby laughed, she really liked Ross's sense of humor. Ross continued: "Well, I've got company with me, I'll introduce you." He opened the bottom half of the door and Ruby entered. She could see the other three members of Ross's team all standing around a work bench with various weapon parts.

They were all girls.

"Hey guys, I'd like to introduce you to someone. This is Ruby." He turned to Ruby: "Ruby, from left to right we have Masozi, Theresa, and Bianca."

Masozi was a girl with dark complexion, with her hair braided in threads across her head. Her eyes were a bright piercing orange. She wore a tan cargo jacket over a white T-shirt, all the while sporting a red bandana tied around her neck. And to compliment her bandana, she wore red pants. Strapped to her back was a great-sword with what appeared to be vents going across the edge and face as if something was supposed to come out of them.

Theresa looked like a cross between a vampire and a businessman. She wore a black trenchcoat that she had kept unbuttoned with a white long-sleeved dress shirt and a black pinstriped tie. Her pants were black. She kept her dark brown hair in a ponytail that went neatly jutted up before it curved downward from the back of her head. What really caught Ruby were her eyes, a sulking dead grey that filled her irises. She was easily the tallest of the group, dwarfing Ross by maybe an inch or two. Unlike Masozi, she had no visible weapons on her.

Bianca was a short fair-skinned girl with blonde hair going down to her shoulders. She wore a lime-green combat skirt that (unlike Weiss and Ruby) hugged at her legs. She wore a rather large pouch with a red cross on it; she was a medic. Her bracelets were made of rather large green beads, each of them about the size of Ruby's fist. Unlike Theresa's dead fish eyes, Bianca's eyes had tons of life in her electric-blue eyes.

Bianca was the first to greet Ruby, she got up from her chair and walked to Ruby while extending her hand. "Hi!" she said while smiling. Ruby's first impression of Bianca was that she was really, really, perky. She shook Bianca's hand. "Are you Ross's girlfriend?"

"Umm…" Ruby and Ross both turned red at the notion. Ruby spoke: "I only met Ross this morning."

"Oh!" she said, giving off a giggle. "That's how it starts!"

"Nice to meet you Bianca." said Ruby. Masozi was the next to greet Ruby. She went up to Ruby, grabbed her hand with her fingerless gloves (The kind of gloves that cover the knuckles and palm) and shook it saying, "Hey, how are you?" Masozi's grip was firm, and her arms were lean and muscular. Masozi gave Ruby the impression that she was an athlete. She wasn't as perky as Bianca, but she was certainly outgoing.

Theresa just walked...no...she hovered? No, she was walking, but the trenchcoat concealed her feet, giving her the illusion of being off the ground. Anyways, she walked toward Ruby and extended her hand. It was pale and when Ruby shook it, she could feel Theresa's bones. Theresa seemed to be sizing up Ruby and trying to get an impression of her just as Ruby was trying to get an impression of everyone else. "How do you do." she said, in a polite and vaguely British accent.

"Good, thank you." said Ruby in reply.

"Well, I'll go get the magazine." said Ross.

"Wait! You don't know what kind of bullets I use!" said Ruby. "Really nice to meet you guys!" she said to Ross's team as she followed Ross into a corner of the room where he apparently stored bullets, shells, even cartridges of dust.

"I do know what kind of bullets you use." said Ross.

"You do?" asked Ruby.

"You are wearing them on your belt." said Ross, pointing to where Ruby kept spare bullets strapped to her belt if she needed them. They often came in handy if she needed to put an extra bullet in the chamber. "Sixty caliber high-powered red-dust rounds." he said, pulling a red empty magazine from a shelf full of empty magazines. "Will this fit the mag chamber?" he asked.

"Yeah, but it's an extended clip." said Ruby.

"Is that a problem?"

"Yeah, in combat, I have to shift where my hands are on the shaft frequently so that means I have to make sure my hands have enough room to move. Shifting my hands down the shaft will be hard if I have this big clunky mag in my way."

"Interesting…note to self: big magazines are more trouble than they're worth for scythes and other weapons that rely on being swung." said Ross as he looked for another magazine. Honestly, Ruby kind of liked him even more for just listening to her dork out about her weapon.

"This magazine isn't red, but it should hold as much as the magazines you usually use." said Ross as he held out a silver colored magazine.

"I like the color." she said as she was blinking rapidly and getting Ross to notice the magazine matched her eyes.

"Good to know." he said, blushing. He opened the cupboard next to them and pulled out a milk crate of sniper rounds identical to the ones Ruby used. As he loaded bullets into the magazine, he whispered: "They're staring at us aren't they?"

Ruby looked back at Ross's team and sure enough, they were keeping their eyes on Ross and Ruby. "Yeah, why is that?"

"It's because I told them I met a cute girl this morning."

"You better be referring to me." said Ruby.

"I was."

"Why did you tell them?!" whispered Ruby a little embarrassed.

"I don't really talk with anyone outside of my team." he said.

"Why didn't you keep it to yourself?"

"You know, I honestly don't remember." he said, visibly nervous. "Here you go." he said handing Ruby the silver magazine. "I didn't talk about the scene where you almost hit me with the hammer, if that's what you're so worried about."

An expression of relief came over Ruby. She brought out her scythe and expanded it into it's gun form. She took the magazine and loaded the cartridge in. She folded it back into into it's compact form.

"I'm sorry, I got all worked up over nothing." she said.

"It's all right." said Ross. "You're not in the wrong, you had an embarrassing moment that you want to keep secret and you're just making sure I didn't betray your trust."

Ruby looked Ross in the eyes: "You're amazing, you know that?" she said.

"Why's that?" he asked.

"If I feel bad about anything, you can turn it around on me and make me feel all good and happy and warm." she said. Ross seemed to take it to heart and he blushed accordingly.

It seemed like Ruby and Ross could stand there forever just taking in each others presence.

"I do hate to interrupt..." said Theresa who had seemed to materialize right next to them.

"AGH! Where did you come from!" shrieked Ruby.

"Sorry, I have that effect on people sometimes." said Theresa.

"It's true." said Ross who wasn't the least bit rattled by Theresa's 'effect'. He must have been used to it.

"In any case, I do hate to interupt, but Ross was educating us on dust safety protocols."

"You were?" asked Ruby.

"Yeah, I had to know that to get my blacksmith's license, so I'm teaching these guys because it's part of the Dust use and manipulation course we're taking."

"Sounds fun." said Ruby sarcastically.

"No kidding." said Ross. "But Theresa's right, we should be getting back to that."

"Yeah, I'll see you at four then?" said Ruby.

"Yeah."

"What's going on at four?" asked Bianca in a sing-songy voice.

"We're making sure that when I repaired her scythe, I did it correctly." said Ross in a voice that was trying too hard to be serious.

"Oh." said Bianca, with a smile spreading across her face.

"Yeah. So...I'll just…er." said Ruby as she pointed her thumb in the direction of the door.

"Yeah, see you later Ruby." said Ross with a smile.

"Hey Ross! Be a gentleman and hold the door open for her will ya?" said Masozi.

"Oh...yeah...um." stuttered Ross as he went to the door and opened it. As Ruby walked through the door, she could _feel_ the rest of Ross's team looking at her and Ross. They both felt a mutual feeling of embarrassment as Ross shut the door behind her.

When Ross shut the door, Ruby felt bad for Ross, who would undoubtedly be teased by his team for ages to come.


End file.
